New Balance X Shelflife x Dr.Z!

"Built with premium detailing and materials, the "City of Gold" 574 features a mix of mesh, nubuck, pigskin suede and reflective 3M heel panels. Further notable features include the yellow speckled sole, prawn graphic lace locks, yellow lace tips and variant branding on the heel."

Whachoo know 'bout that pigskin suede?

Nadda. 

Well, me too. This launch party thing just seemed like a cool idea and it was at Randlords so y'know #fancy. I'm not sure who calls Randlords their "local" but the view from the bathroom is mighty nice. I have been considering crossing over to New Balance, in fact, Tommy and I have held several caucuses weighing up the various pros and cons. Pro: my Roshe's need a rest sometimes too. Con: the New Balance shop we visited in Durban... Think: Hot Mess City! Anyhoo, it's quarter to payday (thank you Yeezus) so who knows what spending decisions I will be regretting in the near future. 

Shoutout to New Balance, Shelflife and Dr. Z for making us feel like we can also have nice things like Japan or somewhere. 

JAG & Me!

I love this place. 

It sums up Johannesburg for me. The beautiful inside of the gallery and the chaotic outside of the street and well, just about everything, manage to complement each perfectly. The art on the inside is given new life by the unintentional art on the outside. I can't tell where the gallery begins and ends. 

I met Alfred and he decided to show me around. Isn't that nice? He also told me not to have babies yet. Noted. 

See more things I love about Jobeezi here: CLICKETY CLICK!

P.S. Why is my dress so creased though? My gran would have nothing good to say about me if she saw me then. 

The City Is Yours

It always has been. 

African Literature & Kim K!

I went to Orange Grove to find the African literature bookshop. Usual Tuesday afternoon, y'know. 

However, Mayor Amos (that guy) forgot to tell me that it has moved. The sign remains but the actual shop is empty except for three ladies manning the entrance expectantly.  

I found out that the shop has moved to Gandhi Square but I wasn't going to drive there given the disgusting heat of the afternoon and the seemingly ever-present flash of my petrol gauge. Goodness, petrol expenses kill me. When I think of Kimmy K (don't you?) the envy I feel is related primarily to the fact that if she gets petrol, she probably fills up every time. Every time. 

Anyway, I went to Wits Hospice instead just for a browse. It really is such a strange shop, for one, I have no idea why people donate family photos, it is quite curious. Broken hearts club, I suspect. But then again, photos aren't what they used to be in the age of selfies and camera phones. The shop also has tons of secondhand books but my OCD tendencies were flaring up due to the dust and the white-trashiness of it all so I called it a day and went home to watch Siba's Table. 

Don't Go Breaking My Heart

Some of the things that I saw yesterday. 

Go Now

The Standard Bank Art Gallery never disappoints. I mean, sheesh, it is even open on a Monday. This exhibition is so beautiful and intelligent. I was alone in the gallery and it felt like mine alone. So just go on a Monday and thank me later. 

I have always loved this place because many years ago when I was an asshole teenager with a Dawson's Creek mentality my dad took me to see the Picasso and Africa exhibition, I drowned that day. It was too much. I'd never loved my eyes so much before. And so began my love affair with this place.

Feed your eyes, they're hungry too. 

Hello November!

It's my month. Universe act accordingly. 

Here's my week in photos, just in case you needed some voyeurism. 

The last photo is from my photo project titled I Love You The Most Johannesburg (click here).

The question is, who do you love the most? This participant, Andile kinda cheated in that you're only supposed to put one name (no boring compromises) but since his girlfriend was with him he felt obliged (I think) to be honest and practical, so he wrote his mom's name and his girlfriend's. Wise man, I guess.

I'm slowly but surely collecting the kaleidoscope of lovers in Johannesburg and one day I will have indubitable proof that Johannesburg is really just the city of love. 

P.S. I always look pie-eyed when I am completely sober. I had only had a coke in a Styrofoam cup for goodness' sake. 

Best Friend, Boyfriend & Haruki Murakami!

This is a very happy time for me because yesterday my best friend celebrated her birthday and tomorrow my boyfriend attempts to celebrate his. My scorpio tribe take up so damn much of my heart that I barely have space left for Conan O'Brien, receiving money for nothing and baby pug gifs. 

Both Tommy and Tumelo are bound to be richessful (rich and successful) so I'm hoping that they'll keep me around or else I will be penning their unauthorized biographies with photos, ya dig? Nonetheless, I got mad love for my two T's and this wouldn't be my self-indulgent blog if I didn't attempt to praise their wonder and all-around amazingness.

In other news, this is a gift from the internet (click here). I engage in delusional thinking on the regular and one of my classic bitches-be-crazy daydreams is that Haruki Murakami is my homeboy. I usually just text him or he invites me for a beer in a dingy bar somewhere. I don't drink beer but that's wholly irrelevant. His writing just inspires that kind of intimacy, well, that's my reasoning anyway. Read this and follow it up with some of this (click here).

 “It’s strange, isn’t it?” the woman said in a pensive voice. “Everything is blowing up around us, but there are still those who care about a broken lock, and others who are dutiful enough to try to fix it. . . . But maybe that’s the way it should be. Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart.”

Haruki Murakami, Samsa in Love.

One last thing:

"If we are the same person before and after we love, that means we haven’t loved enough."

Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love.

P.S. I realize that these photos are completely unrelated but I took them and I like them so that's all there is to say about that. 

Daleah's!

My homie Daleah has created a cosy and delicious spot to rival the very best in a little street that is so great that we call it a whole suburb: Braamfontein.

Miss insert-long-Greek-surname, may or may not have inadvertedly sponsored this post since I first emailed her one December afternoon whinging that I could bake and that I needed money (in nicer words of course) and she kindly obliged and so far this year I've baked close to 70 peanutbutter chocolate cakes for this fine establishment. 

So friends, hoes and that guy in Ukraine who all read this blog; please pop in, order my cake (of course) and be merry.

Daily Paper

Daily Paper is a brand that Heather and I came across at STR CRD this past weekend. Now STR CRD probably deserves it's own post, just to give me a space to rant at how I couldn't drink anything besides a BOS Ice Tea mix. I mean come on, what 20-something brother wants to drink ICED TEA at 22:00 in  the JOHANNESBURG INNER CITY. I'm not being irrational here am I internet?

But anyway Daily Paper, shit's dope (click here). We met Hussain Suleiman at their stall at STR CRD, dude looks really young, but was really cool and bonus points to him, he really loved Joburg. So there you go Johannesburg, at least someone loves you. I managed to get my hands on a baseball tee, so thats my Tumblr win for the year, but honestly I could've walked away with everything on the rack but as usual, bothersome things like how many zero's my bank account has and eating and living got in the way.

Black & White Thursday

 I love my city. 

An Oversimplication of Her Beauty

Aren't these posters just beautiful?

I need to see this for the mere fact that Flying Lotus, my friend FlyLo, lends his talent to the soundtrack. 

Johannesburg Says

Life

Year of The Snake!

On Saturday Tommy and I celebrated the Chinese New Year in old Chinatown.

Fireworks in the sky, noodles on the road and happiness in my chest. 

The baby behind us was the bee's knees.

Collectors Treasury

Yesterday I did something that I have been meaning to do since the middle of last year. Ahhh, it feels so good. Small pleasures: they're the only ones that I can afford... 

You see, last year while we were on the hunt for an elusive ATM at Market on Main (curse that place); Tommy and I found this hidden gem with books spilling out. It was closed and that made it all the more appealing. 

And so with Tommy being AWOL since flippin' November (that's 9 weeks, sir) I have run out of sad/romantic movies to watch and so I decided to venture out to somewhere besides gym. 

Turns out, the shop is the largest used and rare book shop in Africa and in the Southern Hemisphere being home to over a million books! 

It seems crazy to imagine a million books in one shop, but once you go inside the chaos the books and stuff (vinyls, postcards, teacups) swallow you whole and I felt as though I had entered a place that could be home to a mad genius or a healthy family of (well read) spiders. 

I got Wizard of The Crow by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o for 80 bucks! Whoop. 

Johannesburg, you beauty! 

Joburg By Night

Tommy gave me a camera for my birthday.

Now I can document my fleeting youth. Yippee!